Last Week

Fed Chairman Powell Reinforces Patience on Policy Tightening. Following the release of December’s Federal Open Market Committee minutes, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed that the central bank will be patient in further monetary policy decisions.

Multiple Companies Across Sectors Cut Guidance. Macy’s experienced an 18% stock price decline last Thursday after cutting 2019’s guidance following soft December sales. A weak December caused a broad-based sell-off among most other retail companies as well.

This Week

CitiGroup, J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo to Report Earnings. Banks out of the financials sector will commence earnings season for fourth quarter. Citigroup (C) will report on Monday followed by J.P. Morgan (JPM) and Wells Fargo (WFC) on Tuesday.

U.K. Prime Minister May to Hold Brexit Vote. This Tuesday U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May will hold a vote to determine the terms of Brexit. A disjointed parliament with competing objectives and different definitions of success along with an unforgiving European Union make passing a Brexit difficult for May.

Global Inflation Data in Line with Expectations. Europe, Germany, Japan and the U.K. will post December inflation figures that are mostly in line with prior readings except for headline CPI in Europe and Japan, which are expecting larger decreases.